Odisha Soochana
Adhikar Abhijan
Plot No. D-27, Maitree
Vihar, Post-Rail Vihar, Bhubaneswar
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Date: 15.04.2017
To
Gayatri Mishra
Joint Secretary (IR)
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & pension
Department of Personnel & training
North Block
New
Delhi
Sub: Framing R.T.I rules 2017 in supersession of RTI Rules
2012 - Comments/suggestions regarding.
Dear Madam,
As
per your circular dated 31st March 2017 regarding above
mentioned subject, a State consultation was organised
by Odisha Soohana Adhikar Abhijan (a
state–level forum of RTI Activists spearheading campaign for effective
implementation of RTI Act in Odisha) at Bhubaneswar on 10.4.17. to prepare
a note of suggestions to Central Govt.
for making the said draft Rules citizen-friendly,
inconsonance with letter and spirit of RTI Act.
Good number of intellectuals, advocates, retired bureaucrats, RTI
Activists, Civil Society Groups had participated in the deliberation and
presented their views. I am herewith
forwarding these comments / suggestions for your reference.
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Draft Central RTI Rules, 2017
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Rule
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Existing
provision
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Suggestion
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Justifications
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Rule-4
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Fees for
providing information
(C) actual
cost of price for samples of models
(d) Rupees
fifty per diskette or floppy
(g) so much
of postal charge involved in supply of information that exceeds fifty
rupees
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(C) actual
cost of price for samples and /or models
(d) No fee
for sending information in email, pendrive, CD and any other electronics
medium.
(g) to be
deleted
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Because, no
cost is involved to provide the information in electronic means.
As per
Notification No.34012/ 13(s)/2005-Estt(B) dtd 6-10-2005, “… Since a number of
public authorities do not have offices located at each sub-divisional level
or sub-district level, the matter was taken up with the Department of Posts
to provide the services of their Central Assistant Public Information
Officers (CAPIOs) to function in that capacity for all public authorities
under the Central Government…..”; “The Department of Posts have also
indicated that they will be in a position to undertake the work only on
behalf of those Ministries who have completed this action and have informed
them of the same. Ministries/ Departments are, therefore, requested to
indicate the details of the Central Public Information Officers designated by
them as well as the nodal officers/ central point in their Department to
receive the RTI
mails
(application etc. forwarded by the CAPIOs) to the Department of Posts urgently.”
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Rule-6.
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Mode of
Payment of fees
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Money
order, paytm to be accepted as mode of payment of fees.
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Rule-8
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(1) (viii) A certificate
stating that the matter under appeal has not been previously filed and disposed or are pending with the commission or any court and
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To be deleted
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As RTI Act
concerns only supply of information to the information-seekers, no
such type of certificate is
required and it should not be ground for rejection of appeal.
Secondly, this provision has been borrowed from the impugned CIC (Management)
Regulations 2007 [vide Regulation 9(6)]. The expression ‘any court’ is not
only superfluous, but also counter-productive, since an RTI applicant may
require a piece of information simply in connection with one of his cases
pending in a court.
Moreover,
If the matter under the appeal was previously filed and disposed or are
pending there will be a long time gap, obviously more than 90 days. For delay there is rule to request for
condonation vide Rule 8(vii). So a
certificate as required under Rule 8(viii) is not necessary.
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(ix) proof
of service of appeal to respondent
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To be
deleted
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It is
presumed that proof of service of appeal to respondent means the copy of
appeal to be sent to CPIO, First Appellate Authority (FAA) prior to sending
it to Commission. It will be extra financial burden on the poor appellant to
send the copy of appeal to respondent. The
present practice of issuing
notice along with copy of appeal petition by the Commission to CPIO has been widely accepted and it
has not created any
problem for anybody in RTI regime.
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(2)
Before submitting an appeal
to the Commission, the appellant shall
cause a copy of the appeal to be
served on the CPIO and shall submit a
proof of such service to the commission
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To be
deleted
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DO
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Rule-11
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Procedure
for deciding appeals
(iii)
inquire through authorised officer further details or facts
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To be
deleted
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As required
under section 18 (3) of the RTI Act,
the Commission is empowered itself to enquire into
cases filed before commission.
Provision for appointment of enquiry officer by
Commission is violation of the RTI Act. As per the Delhi High
Court judgement in WP (C) 12714/2009 dated 21.05.2010 in the matter
of DDA versus CIC and another, the Commission can’t delegate the enquiry
power to any other officer outside its authority.
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Rule-12
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Withdrawal/abatement
of appeal
(1)
The Commission may in its
discretion allow a prayer for
withdrawal of an appeal if such prayer is made by the appellant
(2)
The proceedings pending
before the commission shall abate on
the death of the appellant
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To be
deleted
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Since 12
years of implementation of RTI Act, many RTI Activists have been murdered due
to their fight to expose corruption through use of RTI. May of their cases are pending in the commission. If the
case will be closed, the information relating to corruption or their
problem may not come to public. Secondly, it will encourage the vested groups to kill information-Seekers on the pretext that
information about their misdeeds
will not be exposed.
CIC
RESOLUTION dated13-9-2011 reads, “2. This Commission, therefore, resolves that
if it receives a complaint regarding assault or murder of an information
seeker, it will examine the pending RTI applications of the victim and order
the concerned department(s) to publish the requested information suo motu on
their website as per the provisons of law.” Therefore
abatement of pending proceedings on the death of the appellant is abatement
of transparency.
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Rule-13
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Complaint
to the Commission
(1)(V)
A certificate stating
that the matter under
appeal has not been previously
filed and disposed or are pending with the commission or any court
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To be deleted
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Not
required. The purpose of the law to find out information and to be acessable
by the citizens. As per RTI Act, the cases relating to non-supply of
information will be filed to
Information Commission only.
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(vi) Proof
of service of complaint to respondent
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To be
deleted
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It is the
practice in the commission that the commission issues notice to respondent
along copy of the complaint /appeal petition.
It is borrowed from CIC (Management)
Regulation 2007 vide Regulation 10 which has been quashed by Delhi High Court ( WP C No. 12714/2009
on 21.5.2010.
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(3)
Before submitting a complaint to the commission, the complainant shall cause a copy of the complaint to Central Public Information Officer ad shall submit a proof of such
service to the commission
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To be deleted
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DO
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15
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(iv) the Commission may in
its discretion allow a prayer
for any amendment of a
complaint during hearing , including conversion of the complaint into second appeal, if
available remedies have been
exhausted on a prayer made by the complainant.
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To be
deleted
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It will no
way help the complainant or appellant. As per section 18 of the RTI Act, the
Commission is empowered to take any kind of step to uphold the law and ensure
justice to the complainant. There is no need of conversion of the case into
second appeal.
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16
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(v) On receipt of a non-compliance
communication, the Commission shall determine
whether compliance of the
decision has been made. Where the Commission
finds non-compliance of its decision, it may proceed action
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To be added
It may
proceed action against public authority, CPIO and any referred PIO under the
Act. There should be provision for
outlining detailed procedure with fixation of time limit for the Commission
to initiate action against CPIO, FAA and Public Authority.
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17
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Xxxxxxx directs that the appeal/complaint/non-compliance or a
category of the same may be posted for hearing/disposal by another bench or a
bench of two or more information commissioners either at the request of an
Information Commissioner or suo moto
if the same involves an intricate question of law or larger public
interest.
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To be
deleted
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As per
section 18 ( 3) of the Act, the
Commission is required itself to cause
an enquiry into any complaint cases without assigning anybody for enquiry.
Constitution of Bench of CIC which has found place in CIC (Management) Regulation,2007 which has been quashed by Delhi High
court ( WPC 12714/2009 dated
21.5.2010.
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18
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Presence of parties before
the Commission
(3)The
Commission may allow the parties to be
present in person or through
authorised representative or through
video / audio conferencing at the time of hearing by Commission
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The PIO/
public authority who has violated RTI
Act should not be represented by anybody. He himself is to be present in the
hearing to respond the query of the commission.
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As per
section 19 (5) of the RTI Act, any
appeal proceeding, the onus to prove that
a denial of a request was
justified shall be on Central Public
Information Officer who denied the
request. Similarly, as per section
20(1) of the RTIAct, burden of
proving that he acted reasonably or diligently shall be on the Central Public Information
Officer or State Public Information Officer as the case may be.
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22
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Language of the Commission
(1)
An appeal or complaint or
non-compliance communication may be
filed in English or in Hindi and all the documents or copies thereof shall also be filed in English or in Hindi
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It should
be in Hindi, English and other regional language
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As per
section 4(4) of the RTI Act, each public authority is required to disseminate
all materials taking into
consideration the cost effectiveness, local language and the most effective method of communication in the local area xxxxxxxxx.
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Thanking you
Yours sincerely
Pradip Pradhan
State Convener
M-9937843482
